President Obama adds six items to second-term agenda

Currently it’s $7.25 and Obama is proposing to raise it in stages through 2015. It was last raised in 2009, and the current wage translates to $15,000 salary a year.

Funding high quality pre-school for low-income kids

This proposal would expand pre-school opportunities for 4-year-olds by providing low-and-moderate income with access to pre-school, and also hope to expand programs for middle income children. The Huffington Post notes that it’s “unclear how the Obama administration would find the money for such a program, which the Center for American Progress estimated could cost $98.4 billion for the preschool portion and $11.5 billion for the Early Head Start expansion over 10 years.”

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Bringing 34,000 troops back from Afghanistan this year

“By the end of the year, our war in Afghanistan will be over,” he said. The plan calls for 50,000 troops to still be in the country in November, with bigger declines coming after that. Ultimately, the plan would leave about 32,000 troops in Afghanistan by next February.

Making it easier for people to vote

The president has been talking about this issue since Election Day, when many people were forced to wait for many hours in lines to vote, but he finally offered some specifics. “When any Americans – no matter where they live or what their party – are denied that right simply because they can’t wait for five, six, seven hours just to cast their ballot, we are betraying our ideals,” he said. To that end, he announced he’s forming a commission to recommend national standards to cut waiting times and improve overall access to voting. Ultimately, though, Congress would have to create any national standards.

Spending $40 billion to fix bridges

Obama called for a “Fix it First” program to address the nation’s aging infrastructure, including $40 billion to repair the 70,000 structurally deficient bridges around the country.

Using oil money to pay for alternative energy research

It would also require an act of Congress, but Obama is pushing a proposal that has been floated before — diverting some oil and gas royalties to a fund that would pay for research and investment in alternative energy vehicles and other options.